The Power of “I deserve this”

Greetings, Meteor readers,

I cannot get enough of the national drama unfolding over our jacked-up Reflecting Pool. PoolTok has been simply impeccable.

Today, sports journalist Jemele Hill explains the beauty of the World Cup and the boldness of the WNBA. Plus, is Hot Socialist Summer coming to a city near you?

Please let the vandals be real,

Nona Willis Aronowitz

WHAT’S GOING ON

“You gonna learn to like it”: It’s been an amazing year in sports—and no, we don’t mean the Knicks in what we refer to around here as the MNBA. Over in the WNBA, the women are having a superstar season. And that’s to say nothing of how even non-soccer fans are getting into the World Cup spirit this year. So this week, Brittany Packnett Cunningham invited her friend, sports journalist Jemele Hill, onto UNDISTRACTED to unpack it all. Some highlights:

Brittany Packet Cunningham: The Men’s World Cup—the MWC, we’ll call it—is taking over America. The fever is rich. But when we talk about this intersection of sports and politics, ICE has refused to stay away from the World Cup host cities. What do we know about what’s actually happening? 

Jemele Hill: I’m gonna say this. Despite the shadow [cast by] our current administration…what I have been inspired by this World Cup is that the visitors that are here are seeing that there’s a big difference between the government and the people, in terms of how these fans are being accepted in American cities. Frankly it’s been tickling me—I would love to know what their cholesterol gonna be when they leave here, ‘cause it’s gonna be bad. Waffle House, Cracker Barrel, they been all up in Golden Corral. [Laughs.] That to me has cleaned up the stench of how this administration feels about visitors. I think this World Cup overall has been beautiful because of how these visitors are experiencing America, and understanding we are not defined by the ugliness of Donald Trump.

BPC: [In March] the WNBA negotiated a huge new deal for themselves. They got a massive pay increase for this season, and increased their overall earnings fivefold. It was a victory that splashed into the popular zeitgeist. Talk a little bit about why this is a big deal. 

JH: This is huge. [The WNBA] was my first professional beat, and I think about where they were in 1997. It was a 28-game season…and as part of the new CBA they will be playing 50 games next season, which is incredible. The pay and salary increases are staggering and gigantic. And I know that it’s really easy to compare to the MNBA, but the comparison that should be made is where the MNBA was after [just] 30 years…Like, they were in serious financial trouble. The WNBA has certainly gone through some ups and downs. That’s normal for a league as it’s trying to build its foundation. But let me tell you—the WNBA has lapped the field to where the men were after 30 years.

OLIVIA MILES BEING HER AUTHENTIC SELF AGAINST THE WASHINGTON MYSTICS. (VIA GETTY)

BPC: Now you tune into an WNBA game and you see Sephora seat covers. Angel Reese has a gajillion endorsements. It’s clear that the women of the league have been very creative in building their own lanes, but I’m curious: Do you think the CBA helped the brands get clear on just how bankable these players are?

JH: With the WNBA, it was already growing. But then the explosion happened because you had Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese in the league at the same time. Sometimes you need a lightning strike, and the lightning strike happened. Where the league used to try to capitulate to a certain image of what they wanted these women to be, now it’s not that way anymore. You got your Barbies, you got your studs, you got every manner of women. You even look at the promising amazing rookie right now, Olivia Miles, she out there, full-blown Afro, serving buckets and being her authentic self as she does it. These women were like, “You gonna learn to like it.” That was their approach, and the brands have followed…[The players] had to force themselves to be seen. That’s not easy to do, especially if you’re talking about a league that is dominated by Black women and queer women.

BPC: The WNBA has also been one of the few places in society where really visible women, especially Black and queer women, have been vocally against Trump’s agenda. You got Liberty players wearing Kamala Harris shirts. You got Dream players who endorsed Raphael Warnock, even though his opponent, Kelly Loeffler, was a co-owner of the team. Why do you think that boldness exists [in the WNBA] so uniquely?

JH: The boldness exists because most of the women that are in the league have constantly had to fight for dignity and respect…I’m sure a lot of them remember the indignities they had to suffer…[having to] prove over and over again, I’m just as good as you, or I belong just like you belong. So when you’re in that mode, it’s natural for you to fight. It’s natural for you to say, “I deserve this.” When they put themselves on the line for Raphael Warnock against another WNBA owner [in 2020], they weren’t making any money. If anything, they should be the ones trying to protect their little crumbs. It kind of shamed the men because it’s like you sitting on millions of dollars and you ain’t doing nothing. What’s your excuse?

This interview has been condensed and edited. Listen to the whole episode here.

AND:

• Hot Socialist Summer is well underway, at least in some of America’s bluest cities. In the last week, a slate of candidates who claim the democratic socialist label—many of them Millennial women—have declared victory in New York City and Washington, D.C.. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Nithya Raman and Marissa Roy, mayoral and city attorney candidates respectively, will advance to runoffs in November. They’ve all been touting a Mamdani-esque platform that frontloads affordability issues, including universal childcare. The latter was a major campaign issue for D.C.’s Democratic mayoral primary winner (and thus likely next mayor) Janeese Lewis George, who has a baby in daycare and is well aware of the city’s “insane” costs for childcare.

D.C. MAYORAL CANDIDATE JANEESE LEWIS GEORGE BROUGHT HER SON WITH HER TO VOTE THIS MONTH. (VIA GETTY)

• The Lilith Fair vibes are strong: Olivia Rodrigo’s Daisy Chain Fields, a one-day music festival in August, has an impressive list of women-centered nonprofits benefiting from the proceeds, from the National Women’s Law Center to Black Mamas Matter Alliance. We love to see it, especially in an age when many musicians have chosen silence during Trump 2.0.

• The Supreme Court is trying to ruin our weekends with bad ruling after bad ruling after bad ruling! Just a little reminder from Adam Serwer that we can actually push our reps to do something about this.

• “This is the hill we need to be willing to die on”: The New York Times documents some Republicans’ terrifying and increasingly vocal desire to put abortion patients in prison. (More on those “abortion abolitionists”—yes, an appalling term—from Jessica Valenti here.)

• More proof that crisis pregnancy centers can’t replace real doctors.

• And speaking of pregnancy: Thank you, Usha, for clarifying that your maternity lewks are totes relatable, but even a deeply discounted Old Navy dress will not humanize your husband.

• Good riddance to Alligator Alcatraz, which stole $1 billion from Florida’s emergency fund to commit atrocities.

• How do we feel about Michelle Obama’s sorta-friendship with George W. Bush? Shut it down or let her live?

FOLLOW THE METEOR

Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend?
Sign up for your own copy, sent Tuesdays and Thursdays.

[email protected]